Empathy
The episode opens with a look back 100 years. Yure Shinatose is explaining the council's plan to grow the population of Sidonia in 6 generations to half a million. New children will acquire most of their nutrition through photosynthesis.
Yure calls her Izana, her grandchild, in the present. She hasn't seen Izana much. Izana promises to visit when she gets a chance but doesn't stay on the phone very long. She accompanies Tanikaze to the Extraterrestrial Research Division. He has been summoned by Numi, one of the member of the ERD, because the Ena he brought back in the last episode has been saying his name.
Tanikaze approaches the cell where the Ena is kept. It strikes out at him when it sees him. No physical contact occurs. Numi quickly ends the experiment. Tanikaze, Numi, and Izana go to the Onion Whale Café afterwards. They run into a few other pilots (Samari, Tsuruuchi) at the cafe. They get into a conversation about the nature of the captured Ena. It seems to be human in some ways.
Kobayashi goes to Kunato's home with Yure and the Ochiai clone. There is equipment they need which is kept far beneath the house. Kobayashi and Yure wake him up to access his brain. Once they have what they need they put him back to sleep. Mozuku, Kunato's assistant, hacks into surveillance system so her boss can watch. He doesn't fully understand what he is seeing but Mozuku explains who Ochiai is and what he did to deserve such treatment.
The seventh planet of the Lem star system is approved for colonization. The mission will occur if at least 50,000 sign up for it. There is much debate about how safe it is but those who believe in the mission think that if they don't have Kabizashi then the Gauna won't harm them.
Yuhata hits on Tanikaze while he is hanging out with Shinatose. Her attempt at talking to him gets interrupted by a message from ERD. Numi wants him to make a second attempt at talking to the captured Ena. He tries but things don't get very far before he receives a deployment order and has to rush to his ship.
Tanikaze arrives at the hangar and discovers that he has been promoted to squad leader. A montage of moments follows. Tanikaze is a successful squad leader. He also spends a lot of time in the ERD with the Ena that looks like Hoshijiro. Yuhata is not happy with that development.
Kunato has given up being a pilot but he still has nightmares about his near death at the hands of the Gauna that sounded like Hoshijiro.
Tanikaze continues to visit the captured Ena but progress is slow. Numi warns him that even though it looks and sounds a bit like Hoshijiro it is not human but a piece of a Gauna.
Yuhata and Izana approach Nagate separately. They both suggest that they do something with him on their next day off. He is a bit dazed but agrees to both their wishes.
Numi notices something when she is alone monitoring the captured Ena. It spins around but it always seems to keep looking in the same direction. She does some investigating and realizes that its gaze is directly in line with the storage area for the Kabizashi.
Thoughts
I've noticed that the subtitles (on Netflix) sometimes indicate who is talking by name which is helpful when characters haven't been properly introduced to the audience.
There's lots brewing here but not a lot in the way of action or big developments. It really does take a close viewing to catch all the little bits and pieces.
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